The Innatentive Reader 1919

Henri Matisse must have made "The Inattentive Reader" with oils on canvas, and what I love is how he's made the whole scene shimmer in blues and pinks, as though you're seeing it through a heat haze. I feel a real sympathy for Matisse, imagining him there trying to capture something so fleeting and internal. The painting’s surface is very matter-of-fact, but his gesture – the way he balances the composition, the way he allows for negative space – communicates such feeling. It has this immediate optical pop, but it also has this sense of the way the mundane aspects of life are saturated with feeling. Matisse's practice, along with other painters, teaches us that ambiguity is our friend – that an artwork can have multiple interpretations and meanings.